"For everything there is a season..." There are seasons in our lives that can only be viewed from the lens of retirement.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Daily Bible Reading: Acts 2:37-42 Baptism

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him." And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Comments: The life of a Christian is about transformation. But transformation—becoming a better person because of the love of Christ does not come without recognizing that there is a need to reform. If we see something wrong either in our lives or in society, it is our joy to be about changing. It isn’t a duty. It isn’t a matter of if I don’t change I won’t be saved. We are already saved by the act of our Lord on the Cross. But in order to have a deeper knowledge of the One who gave himself for us, we must clear the baggage out of our way. We must prepare our lives to receive him.

Baptism is generally the beginning of our lives in Christ, but there are those who have never been baptized who know the Lord in their hearts. Baptism is not only the sign of our submission to the way of the Lord, it is a sacrament—it confers the grace of God. It makes it possible for the baptized to be about the acts of transformation throughout their lives.

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Loud Sounding Wisdom

There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.(Madeleine L'Engle)

"Do we really want a gracious God?Certainly we do -- for ourselves;but can we have a gracious Godif we don't believe that the same graceis given to those sinners outside our church doors,outside our faith, outside our boundaries of acceptability?" Pr. Brian Stroffregen

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About Me

I am an unabashedly liberal Episcopal priest from a time when being a liberal was a "good" thing. If I am knee-jerk about anything it is about seeing that justice is done by those of us who call ourselves Christians or who are about serving Christ in the Church.